Is the current pope a Freemason?

Answer 1

A:

It is known that over 120 bishops and cardianls have been freemasons in Italy alone, and the real number is probably very much higher. However, no pope is known to have been a mason. Interestingly, while lay persons can expect automatic excommunication for joining the masons, no cardinal has ever been excommunicated for the same action.

Catholic Answer

Catholics are forbidden, under the penalty of excommunication, from joining the Masons.

Answer 2

It is highly unlikely that Pope Benedict XIV (the current Pope as of January 2010) is a Freemason, as he has published official Church edicts condemning Freemasonry. He has also continued the prescription of excommunication for any member of the Roman Catholic Church who become a member of Freemasonry and refuses to renounce it.

Answer 3

It is commonly known that John XXIII had Masonic friends. However, as the Catholic Church forbids Catholics from becoming a Mason, under penalty of excommunication, it is unlikely that John XXIII was a member of the group.

Answer 4

The pope is not a leader of the Masons. To be honest, the Masons have a history of being quite anti-Catholic. Or more accurately, the Catholics have a history of being anti-Masonic. Either way, the Pope is not involved with the Freemasons in any way.

Answer

As far as is known, no pope has ever been a Freemason. The very notion that a pope could be a Mason, or even head of the Masonic organisation, probably stems from the discovery in 1976 that, in Italy alone, well over a hundred clergy including bishops and cardinals had secretly become Masons, after the Italian government ruled that the names of individuals who joined secret societies such as Masonic lodges be made public. It appears that in many cases, they were blackmailed into becoming members after the Mafia discovered incriminating facts about them. The Masonic movement itself was innocent of direct involvement in what occurred, but its secrecy provided an ideal cover for the Mafia to infiltrate the Vatican and engage in symbiotic criminal activity.

Answer 5

As freemasonry has historically sought to undermine Catholicism and quite literally overturn it as an institution, the answer is quite simple; no!
Pope Benedict XVI is not a Freemason. Prior to becoming Pope, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger issued a document in 1983 forbidding membership in Masonic bodies for members of the Catholic faith. Here is the text:

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CONGREGATION FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH

DECLARATION ON MASONIC ASSOCIATIONS

It has been asked whether there has been any change in the Church's decision in regard to Masonic associations since the new Code of Canon Law does not mention them expressly, unlike the previous Code.

This Sacred Congregation is in a position to reply that this circumstance in due to an editorial criterion which was followed also in the case of other associations likewise unmentioned inasmuch as they are contained in wider categories.

Therefore the Church's negative judgment in regard to Masonic association remains unchanged since their principles have always been considered irreconcilable with the doctrine of the Church and therefore membership in them remains forbidden. The faithful who enroll in Masonic associations are in a state of grave sin and may not receive Holy Communion.

It is not within the competence of local ecclesiastical authorities to give a judgment on the nature of Masonic associations which would imply a derogation from what has been decided above, and this in line with the Declaration of this Sacred Congregation issued on 17 February 1981 (cf. AAS 73 1981 pp. 240-241; English language edition of L'Osservatore Romano, 9 March 1981).

In an audience granted to the undersigned Cardinal Prefect, the Supreme Pontiff John Paul II approved and ordered the publication of this Declaration which had been decided in an ordinary meeting of this Sacred Congregation.

Rome, from the Office of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, 26 November 1983.

Joseph Card. RATZINGER

Prefect

Answer 6

Of course not! The religion of Freemasonry is an automatic excommunication from the Catholic Church. Almost every single Pope for the past several hundred years has reinforced this ban and excommunication. When Pope John Paul II issued a new Code of Canon Law, the ban was actually widened to include all secret organizations.

Answer 7

Catholic AnswerOf course not, beginning with Pope Clement XII in 1738, followed by Popes Benedict XIV (r. 1740-1758), Pius VII (r. 1800-1823), Bl Pius IX (r. 1846-1878), and Leo XIII (r. 1878-1903) have all condemned Freemasonry due to is inveterate hostility in parts of Europe to the church and its doctrines. In the old Code of Canon Law, Canon 2335 prohibits all association with the Masons. There was some confusion regarding the Church's teaching on this matter in 1974 but a clarification was made by the Holy Office in 1981 and a renewal of the prohibition was issued in November 1983. In the 1983 Code of Canon Law, the prohibition remains in force and bishops are NOT empowered to grant dispensations. A report by the Committee for Pastoral Research and Practice, of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops in the United States in June 1985, reiterated the Church's position on Catholics involving themselves with Freemasonry and the 1983 statement sums of Catholic regulations by declaring the principles of Freemasonry to be "irreconcilable with the Church's doctrine."

Mr. John Salza, a Catholic, who at one time in his life had a very high position in the Masons, has since recanted, returned to the Church, and wrote a couple exposes of the unChristian nature of Freemasonry. Mr. Salza continues to work to free people from this insidious snare.

Mr. Salza who wrote the two books at the links below, Why Catholics Cannot be Masons, and Masonry Unmasked, An Insiders Reveals the Secrets of the Lodge was a high ranking Mason for many years. He finally, after being let in on the higher level "secrets" of the Lodge, and after inducting many people into it, came to realize that what every single Pope has said about Masonry is true, that it is a religion, and although it accepts all comers from whatever religion and allows them to swear their oaths on their holy book, actually teaches doctrines antithetical to all of them. Most Masons do not know the full story, and the Church has stood 100% against the Masons since their inception. If you would like to know the full story of the Mason's and their contempt of religion, please read the books below. If you are a Catholic, or any kind of a Christian, please realize that Masonry is inimical to your Christian faith. Even if you are not Catholic you would be well advised to read the books below, Mr. Salza was in the Masons for many years, and knows of what he speaks.

from Modern Catholic Dictionary by John A. Hardon, S.J. Doubleday & Co., Inc. Garden City, NY 1980

Freemasonry. The teachings and practices of a secret international organization whose modern origins date from the first quarter of the eighteenth century. It defines itself as "the activity of closely united men who, employing symbolical forms borrowed principally from the mason's trade and from architecture, work for the welfare of mankind, striving morally to ennoble themselves and others and thereby to bring about a universal league of mankind." Freemasonry began as a fraternity of Deists in Europe, and its basic orientation has been naturalistic, i.e., anti-supernatural, ever since. The hostility of Masonic lodges to the Catholic Church has evoked numerous declarations of the Holy See, notably of Popes Clement XII (1738), Benedict XIV (1751), Pius IX in several documents, especially the Syllabus of Errors (1864), AND Leo XIII in the encyclical Humanum Genus (1884). The Code of Canon Law (1018) decreed that no Catholic may join Masonic sects or any other similar associations which plot against the church (Canon 2335). Since not all Masonic lodges are professedly anti-Catholic, a decision of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith mitigated the severity of the existing law, stating: "In considering particular cases, it must be remembered that penal law is always subject to strict interpretation. Therefore one may safely teach and apply the opinion of those authors who hold that Canon 2335 refers only to those Catholics who join associations which plot against the Church" (September 18, 1974). In special cases, then, a lay Catholic may belong to a Masonic lodge, but the clergy, religious, and members of secular institutes may not belong.

Answer 8

No, he is not a Mason. The Masons are a decidedly an anti-Catholic organization.

Answer 9

No, Catholics are forbidden, under the penalty of excommunication, from joining the Masons.

Answer 10

No, he was not a Freemason. To become a Mason incurs automatic excommunication.